Sad day for the overnight trains.

Budget carriers (and probably personal tastes) have made them fall out of favor. So try AirBerlin (or Lufthansa) and buy your ticket early for the short ~ 1 hour flight. Or take a train during the day.

I for one won't miss them. Took them on 3 occasions, all the City Night Line. One trip went fine, on another the A/C was broken so the compartment was roasting hot, and on the 3rd the actual car we were assigned was not on the train and we ended up getting put by a rude conductor in a basic room instead of the one with a shower we paid for (no refund for the difference, either, although we submitted a claim). I say good riddance...

For most of us, they really weren't time savers, because we didn't sleep a wink and arrived at the destination city too exhausted to do anything but nap.

Won't be missed by me.

They still have them in the U.S.

Hi,

Because CNL is going out by year's end, that does not mean no night service, there is. It's done by the IC and ICE where you seat in general seating area. I did that twice on the last trip in May/June of this year. You still will enjoy the time savings. Going from Munich to Berlin Hbf ( night ) does not exist anymore. That night route ended in Dec 2015. You have to take Munich to Hannover Hbf, where you transfer to Berlin on an IC or ICE. CNL will be out out, night service will still continue. You still have that option.

I for one will miss it. Get on the train at 11 pm, get to your compartment, wash up with sink in comp, hop onto bunk, hubby on top, sleep. Wake up at your destination. Saved time and a hotel bill. Just like the ferry down the Croatian coast, it too has become obsolete.

@ sfisher....Aside from the night service on train routes still in operation after CNL goes out, you have another option going by night...the buses. There are bus companies in Germany that serve not just Germany but also international cities, eg, Berlin to Amsterdam. or Hamburg to Prague. Flixbus, berlinlinienbus, ameropa are only a few of these companies. I am sure Munich to Berlin is served by a bus line at night, unlike DB which only goes to Hannover from Munich and then you need to transfer.

We will be sad to see the "schlafwagons" go. It marks the end of an era. Personally I would take 10 hrs on a train over 5 hrs schlepping through airports!

Routes will still be served at night (perhaps fewer) just not with the sleeping compartments - time will tell how it all shakes out.

There is still of course "The Orient Express" - just bring your BIG credit card!

SMH

I will never understand the "good riddance" type of comment - here and on other night train discussions. It's not like you would be forced to ride a night train. If you do not like them that's fine - but what's it to you if they still run?

As Sam noted above, there still are sleepers on Amtrak -- I have done the cross-country route on the California Zephyr and further connections several times and loved the experience. Took my daughter to college (Oakland/Emeryville in California to Hartford, Connecticut) with three days of enforced mother-daughter bonding, and brought her back four years later. (Both times with way more luggage and boxes than would have been practical on a plane.)

Flixbus, berlinlinienbus,

Berlinlinienbus, a DB company, left the market right last week, Flixbus has 90% of the market share ... Still, DB has announced that there will be a direct night ICE between Munich and Berlin starting from December. With the opening of the new Nürnberg - Erfurt line by the end of 2017 travel time between Munich and Berlin will be reduced to 4:10, while the fastet bus ride will still take 8 hours. Moreover, ÖBB will take over the CNL net (partly). From Dec. 11 there will be the following ÖBB night trains operating in(to) Germany:

EN 490/491: Hamburg – Nürnberg – Passau – Wien
EN 40490/40421: Düsseldorf – Frankfurt – Nürnberg – Passau – Wien
EN 420/421: Düsseldorf – Frankfurt – Nürnberg – Augsburg – München – Kufstein – Innsbruck
EN 40420/40491: Hamburg – Nürnberg – Augsburg – München – Kufstein – Innsbruck
EN 470/471: Zürich – Basel Bad – Frankfurt – Erfurt – Berlin – Hamburg
EN 294/295, EN 40463/40236, EN 40295/40235: München – Salzburg – Rom/Venedig/Mailand

Thanks sla019 for the update. Especially about the new high speed rail link. More info at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg%E2%80%93Erfurt_high-speed_railway

Night trains with my/our own compartment have always been fun for me. I hate to see them disappearing! Flying from place to place is only about getting there, not about the trip. Sigh.

Thanks sla019! I was fairly certain some of the routes would be picked up by OBB.

I say good riddance, too, because a few years in the past, DB cancelled the past-23:00 ICE trains because they said: You could take the CNL train if you travel that late. Why is that bad? Because the ICE starting e.g. at 23:00 at Munich was in Frankfurt at 3:30. The CNL train was there at about 10:00. Now with the end of CNL at most lines the ICE has more passengers and we have fast overnight connections again.

Good riddance.

I'd put Amtrak sleeper trains in a different category from most European sleeper trains. It's a different experience being on the train all night, all day, and all the next night, versus boarding at 11 PM and arriving at 7 AM.

Personally, I've avoided overnight trains in Europe - yes, it saves the cost of a hotel, but it also means I don't have a hotel room to relax in for two days. But I do enjoy cross-country trips on Amtrak and have taken several. Just keep in mind that the scheduled arrival times are only "suggestions" and that trains are often several hours late.

If you wanted the Schafwagen accommodation or the couchette, then abolishing CNL is a regrettable decision. Regardless, to save on the hotel expense, get in an extra day, just going by night, the night service will still be running as IC and ICE and that option can be had. Just because CNL is out, you still can go by night. You just sit in the six seat compartment (as I did as in yesteryear ) or the general seating (Grossraumwagen). The two night train routes I took in May/June in my coach were full, one 99% or packed, esp when a ton of people got on the ICE at midnight at Frankfurt Fernbahnhof. I'm putting together bit by bit my trip for next summer, ca seven weeks, and two night train routes, at least, by IC and ICE are already factored in.

They certainly do. Have fun being hours late because Amtrak is stuck because of slower than slow freight trains.

So true - we went from Winter Haven FL to Miami - were 3 hours late - thats about how long the drive is!

"...that trains are often several hours late." If that occurs with Amtrak, I have never had that happen on a night train in Europe, only once (sort of) in 1971 when the train stopped in the proverbial middle of nowhere in Sweden. I woke up from sleeping and realised the train wasn't moving, it was daylight (this was on midsummer), it just sat there. Another two more hours would pass before it continued. I know it was two hours since from Malmö that scheduled trip to north Sweden to my stop was 22hrs. In the end the train took 24hrs to arrive there where I got off.

Unlike the recent ICE day trains, the EN and CNL I took were always on time. If it was supposed to get in at 7 am, it did so. Getting in between 0630 and 0800 at your destination was ideal.

I haven't taken a night train since I was a young, adventurous person who thought bright station lights shining into the sleeping compartment was fun.

I have witnessed electronic boards posting night train delays of up to 23 hours in the past several years, so it does happen in Europe.